US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the US is reviewing the reimbursement of $500 million as part of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), created after 911 to reimburse US key allies for providing assistance in its war on terror, is one billion short of what Pakistan expected.
Talking to reporters at the residence of the US Ambassador to Pakistan, he said that funds under the CSF had been deferred due to the criticism about lack of documentation by the US General Accounting office in 2008. The US administration was seriously working on it and the funds would be transferred once they were assured of proper documentation and records to show to the US Congress that funds were being used for a specific purpose, he maintained.
Gates, who concluded his two-day visit to Islamabad and arrived subsequent to his visit to India, stated that Pakistan was a sovereign country and its leadership would decide whether to expand its anti-Taliban offensive to other parts of the Tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. He also appreciated the role of security forces to defeat militancy.
"Pakistan is a sovereign country and it is up to Pakistan when and where to launch an operation," he remarked while negating the perception that there was any pressure from the US on Pakistan to expand its operations. The US was prepared to help if we could but it's clear that the Pakistan army and the government, being sovereign, would make their own decision about the pacing and the timing of what they do, he maintained.
"Pakistan and the US are allies and are in the same car on the issue but Pakistan is on the driving seat," Gates remarked. He said that border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan were the hub for al Qaeda and they use this area to launch their attacks against a superpower, therefore the al Qaeda core would remain in these areas despite the fact that some of them had moved to Somalia and Yemen.
The US has no plans for military bases in Pakistan. "We have no desire to control Pakistan's nuclear weapons and are satisfied with Pakistan's capability to protect these assets," Gates said. "There is no Blackwater operating in Pakistan and neither are we bringing over 1000 marines here as mentioned in some news reports. We don't know where these news items are coming from", he maintained.
Gates said that the Pentagon was moving to bolster its relationship with the Pakistani military, citing a billion-dollar fund to provide hardware and training for counter-insurgency efforts and ensuring more Pakistani officers receive training in the US.
The US Defence Secretary was tight-lipped about transferring of drone technology to Pakistan, saying that the US believed in Pakistan's sovereignty. He confirmed that the US was considering providing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to Pakistan for inspection missions.
About the reconciliation with Taliban in Afghanistan, he said that the reconciliation and reintegration are really two different things. "Reintegration is really focused at the lower-level Taliban, many of whom fight for money or to protect their families. And if we can offer them a job, if we can offer security for their families, we believe that a number of these fighters can be reintegrated", he explained. Gates added that reconciliation tends to apply to senior members of the Taliban. For some of them to consider reconciliation on Afghan government terms, they would have to see that the momentum of the conflict has changed against them, he added.
He side stepped a question about the newly introduced body screening mechanism at US airports, saying that the chief of the US homeland department was likely to visit Pakistan and she was the right person to respond to this query. He admitted that the news screening process irritates 99.9 percent of the passengers. He added that Pakistan was not singled out in this screening process and the decision was taken after an attempt to blow up an airline by a terrorist during Christmas.
Responding to a question about India's aggression on Pakistan's Eastern border, he said that there was no evidence that events at this point on the eastern border undermine or threaten Pakistan's operations on the western border. "I think one of the lessons that was learned after the Soviets left Afghanistan, on the part of the international community, was that it was a mistake to neglect Afghanistan. I don't think that will happen again", he said when he was asked about the fall out effect on Afghanistan after the US left the country.
About Kashmir issue, Gates said that both India and Pakistan were involved and should deal with the issue on their own with out any outside intervention. "Kashmir is a regional issue and there should be a regional solution", he maintained. To a question, he said, I did not know about any back channel diplomacy between Pakistan and India, adding that if there was any such channel it should at least be used for information sharing.
"Terrorists are common enemy of Pakistan, Afghanistan, US and India and should be handled jointly," he maintained. About Pakistan's concerns with respect to India's growing activities in Afghanistan, the US Defence Secretary responded that both countries were suspicious about each other's activities in Afghanistan.
About the possible spillover effect of militants in Pakistan from the new surge of the US troops in Afghanistan, he said that both sides have to develop better co-operation and co-ordination to control such a development. He recounted all the terror groups including al Qaeda, Taliban, Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, saying that all of them have a common agenda: to kill people, destroy schools and even mosques and success of one of them means success of all.
"These groups operate interchangeably frequently crossing the border and better co-ordination is needed to discourage them", he maintained. To a question, he said no one, including General Ishfaq Pervaz Kayani, has expressed reservation about the conditions attached to the Kerry-Lugar bill. He was satisfied with the achievement of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, saying that we had gained significant achievements since 2002, however, there was much that needs to be done.